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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 5157 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>

118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 5157

   To require the Secretary of Energy to study new technologies and 
opportunities for recycling spent nuclear fuel, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 24, 2024

Mr. Cruz (for himself and Mr. Heinrich) introduced the following bill; 
   which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                           Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
   To require the Secretary of Energy to study new technologies and 
opportunities for recycling spent nuclear fuel, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Advancing Research in Nuclear Fuel 
Recycling Act of 2024''.

SEC. 2. STUDY ON NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO RECYCLE SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) National laboratory.--The term ``National Laboratory'' 
        has the meaning given the term in section 2 of the Energy 
        Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15801).
            (2) Nuclear waste.--The term ``nuclear waste'' means spent 
        nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, as defined in 
        section 2 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 
        10101).
            (3) Recycling.--The term ``recycling'' means the recovery 
        of valuable radionuclides, including fissile materials, from 
        nuclear waste, and any subsequent processes, such as enrichment 
        and fuel fabrication, necessary for reuse in nuclear reactors 
        or other commercial applications.
            (4) Spent nuclear fuel.--The term ``spent nuclear fuel'' 
        has the meaning given in section 2 of the Nuclear Waste Policy 
        Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10101).
    (b) Study.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
        enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall seek to 
        enter into an agreement with the National Academies of 
        Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to assemble an independent 
        committee of experts to author the study described in this 
        subsection.
            (2) Individuals not to be included.--The independent 
        committee of experts shall not include any of the same 
        individuals who authored the report, ``Merits and Viability of 
        Different Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Technology Options and the 
        Waste Aspects of Advanced Nuclear Reactors (2023)'', but those 
        same individuals may advise the independent committee of 
        experts.
            (3) Independent committee of experts.--The independent 
        committee of experts shall consist of subject matter experts 
        from stakeholders, such as the Office of Nuclear Energy of the 
        Department of Energy, the National Laboratories, academia, 
        industry, and other relevant stakeholder groups, as determined 
        by the Secretary--
                    (A) to analyze the practicability, potential 
                benefits, costs, and risks, including proliferation, of 
                using dedicated recycling facilities to convert spent 
                nuclear fuel, including spent high-assay low-enriched 
                uranium fuel, into useable nuclear fuels, such as those 
                for--
                            (i) commercial light water reactors;
                            (ii) advanced nuclear reactors; and
                            (iii) medical, space-based, advanced-
                        battery, and other non-reactor applications, as 
                        determined by the Secretary;
                    (B) to--
                            (i) analyze the practicability, potential 
                        benefits, costs, and risks of recycling spent 
                        nuclear fuel, which is taken from temporary 
                        storage sites throughout the United States, and 
                        using it as fuel or input for advanced 
                        reactors, existing reactors, or commercial 
                        applications;
                            (ii) compare such practicability, potential 
                        benefits, costs, and risks of recycling spent 
                        nuclear fuel with the practicability, potential 
                        benefits, costs, and risks of the once-through 
                        fuel cycle, including temporary and permanent 
                        storage requirements; and
                            (iii) analyze the practicability, potential 
                        benefits, costs, and risks of aqueous (such as 
                        PUREX and its derivatives) recycling processes 
                        with the practicability, potential benefits, 
                        costs, and risk of non-aqueous (such as pyro-
                        electrochemistry) recycling processes;
                    (C) to analyze the technical and economic 
                feasibility of utilizing nuclear waste processing to 
                extract certain isotopes needed for domestic and 
                international use, including medical, industrial, 
                space-based power source, and advanced-battery 
                applications;
                    (D) to analyze the practicability, potential 
                benefits, costs, risks, and potential approaches for 
                coupling or collocating recycling facilities with other 
                pertinent facilities, such as advanced reactors (that 
                can use the recycled fuel), interim storage, and fuel-
                fabrication facilities, including--
                            (i) relevant analyses, such as capital and 
                        operating cost estimates, public-private 
                        partnerships to encourage investment, 
                        infrastructure requirements, timeline to full-
                        scale commercial deployment, and distinguishing 
                        characteristics or requirements of such 
                        facilities;
                            (ii) input from interested private 
                        technology developers and relevant assumptions 
                        regarding cost; and
                            (iii) comparison with the practicability, 
                        potential benefits, costs, and risks of the 
                        once-through fuel cycle, including temporary 
                        and permanent storage requirements;
                    (E) to identify parties, including individuals, 
                communities, businesses, and local and Tribal 
                governments, that are impacted economically, or through 
                health, safety, or environmental risks, by the current 
                practice of indefinite temporary storage of spent 
                nuclear fuel, and assess potential risks and benefits 
                for these parties should spent nuclear fuel be removed 
                from their sites for the purposes of nuclear waste 
                recycling;
                    (F) to assess different approaches for siting and 
                sizing nuclear waste recycling facilities, including a 
                centralized national facility, regional facilities, on-
                site facilities where spent nuclear fuel is currently 
                stored, and on-site facilities where newly recycled 
                fuel can be used by an on-site reactor, and recommend 
                one or more approaches that consider environmental, 
                transportation, infrastructure, capital, and other 
                risks;
                    (G) to identify tracking and accountability methods 
                for new recycled fuel and radioactive waste streams for 
                byproducts of the recycling process;
                    (H) to--
                            (i) identify any regulatory gaps related to 
                        nuclear waste management and recycling, 
                        including accuracy and consistency of relevant 
                        definitions for radioactive waste (including 
                        ``high-level radioactive waste'', ``spent 
                        nuclear fuel'', ``low-level radioactive 
                        waste'', ``reprocessing'', ``recycling'', and 
                        ``vitrification'') and classifications of 
                        radioactive waste that exist in Federal law on 
                        the date of enactment of this Act;
                            (ii) compare such definitions to those used 
                        by other nations that manage radioactive waste; 
                        and
                            (iii) make recommendations for modernizing 
                        such definitions; and
                    (I) to evaluate--
                            (i) potential Federal and State-level 
                        policy changes to support development and 
                        deployment of recycling and waste-utilizing 
                        reactor technologies; and
                            (ii) impacts of spent nuclear fuel 
                        recycling on requirements for domestic nuclear 
                        waste storage.
    (c) Report.--Not later than 12 months after the date on which the 
agreement described under subsection (b) is entered, the Secretary of 
Energy shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation of the Senate, the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources of the Senate, the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the 
House of Representatives, the Committee on Science, Space, and 
Technology of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on 
Natural Resources of the House of Representatives, a report that 
complies with each of the following:
            (1) Describes the results of the study.
            (2) Is released to the public.
            (3) Totals not more than 120 pages (excluding Front Matter, 
        References, and Appendices) written and formatted to facilitate 
        review by a nonspecialist readership, including the following 
        sections:
                    (A) A Front Matter section that includes a cover 
                page with identifying information, tables of contents, 
                figures, and tables.
                    (B) An Executive Summary section.
                    (C) An Introductory section that includes a 
                historical overview that also explains why recycling is 
                not performed in the United States today, such as 
                economic, political, or technological obstacles.
                    (D) Results and Findings sections that summarize 
                the results and findings of the study described in 
                subsection (b).
                    (E) A Key Remaining Challenges and Barriers section 
                that identifies key technical and nontechnical (such as 
                economic) challenges and barriers that need to be 
                addressed to enable scale-up and commercial adoption of 
                spent nuclear fuel recycling, with preference given to 
                secure, proliferation resistant, environmentally safe, 
                and economical recycling methods.
                    (F) A Policy Recommendations section that--
                            (i) lists policy recommendations to address 
                        remaining technical and nontechnical (such as 
                        economic) challenges and barriers to enable 
                        scale-up and commercial adoption of spent 
                        nuclear fuel recycling, including with 
                        government support;
                            (ii) contrasts the potential benefits and 
                        risks of each policy; and
                            (iii) compares benefits to current or past 
                        policies.
                    (G) An Other section in which other relevant 
                information may be added.
                    (H) A References section.
                    (I) An Appendices section.
                                 <all>
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